Amy Singer!

First off,thanks for the nice comments and kind thoughts on the loss of my "Other Mother". She was a wonderful person, someone I will miss dearly, but we have to go on. We have aprivate family thing this afternoon, then a wake on the weekend.

Well, Tuesday came and went, but not just any Tuesday - last night was our Guild meeting, and we had another fabulous speaker - Amy Singer, editor of Knitty.com, and prolific knitting author!

Here's where I would have inserted a picture of Amy, however, dork that I am, I forgot to bring my camera. Bad blogger! Suffice it to say, she was lovely - warm and friendly, and we had a great time.

I have all three of her books - I'm beginning to think I'm a bit of a knitting book author stalker. First Stephanie, now Amy. Did I mention Fiona Ellis is coming back to speak at our Guild again? Yes, I have her book as well. Yes, I've had her sign it for me. Okay, I think I need a 12 step programme for knitting author stalking...


Amy's talk and Amy herself were incredible.It started around 5:30 - Amy and I met at Needles and Knits, then we headed off to dinner with the rest of the Guild executive. Dinner was so much fun, it was hard to leave, but the rest of the Guild may not have appreciated us bailing on the meeting, so we hauled ourselves back to the shop for Amy's presentation and trunk show. How someone with a diagnosed wool allergy ever became the prolific knitter that she is is beyond me. I mean, really. Nowadays, it's not so bad - lots of luscious, non-wool fibres are available, but in the not too distant past, Amy would have been limited to Ack!rylic, or kitchen cotton. Yes there was some mercerized cottons available, but they were either thread like for crochet, or white. Maybe beige. The "fashion" type non wools were hard to come by. The samples from the book "No Sheep for You" were amazing, and I know a lot of people changed their minds about knitting with non animal fibres. Who knew hemp would knit up into such a deliciously drapey, fabulous sweater. And the silk robe! Man! I wanted to walk out of there with it, but then Amy would have got mad, and she probably wouldn't have wanted to come back. And we want her back! Thanks, Amy!!

All this talk of non animal fibres reminds me - I've finished another Moebuis, using Paton's Soy Wool Stripes. Is it just me, or does Soy strike you as a little odd? How can something be yarn one day, a meat substitute the next, and a milk product the next? Just wondering... But the yarn is nice. Very thick, loosely plied (actually, it's more like a single ply - very Lopi-like). The colours are lovely, and the yarn has a little bit of a sheen. I can see this stuff felting well - I found the ends started getting a little fuzzy, just hanging there waiting to be woven in. So I'm not sure how well this will hold up to use. I won't find out for a while - Pink is not my colour of choice, so this will be a gift, probably for my Mom. Maybe I'll give it to her this weekend before we go to the wake.